Skateboard Heaven

I went to the Guggenheim Tuesday. What a good way to view an exhibition. You go round and round, up and up achieving a pleasing continuity, after which you can review what you’ve seen on the way down. A great idea from Frank Lloyd Wright that never caught on. The other idea he had that never caught fire was his design of a movie theater with its rows of seats that were angled instead of facing flush to the screen. His thinking was that the viewer rarely sits upright facing straight ahead, but is more comfortable in a relaxed, cross-legged position facing off to the side of the screen. Brilliant. 

I went to see the Giacometti exhibition prepared for a raft of pinchy figures like you always see, but was pleasantly surprised to see a variety of styles and an explanation of his art. He says he could work a piece of clay for a thousand years and it might show a bit of progress. This explains why some of his wood works are teeny tiny. I liked his dog, but was most taken by his sculpture of two side by side figures. I see it as his ‘American Gothic’.

New York is a loud city. The subway will confound anyone who has ridden the Paris Metro, where many of the popular lines have been retrofitted for rubber wheels. Like everywhere the restaurants are loud, but especially so in New York because they are nearly always full. And if it’s a pickup place, forget it. Why is it that people think that talking loud is good way to impress someone?